Media LOVES Disaster!

[christa]

I've been watching the "forecast" for Tropical Storm Wilma this morning.

I just wanna see . . . if it doesn't make landfall on the Gulf Coast as a Category 5 . . .

They'll all be so disappointed.

[jackie]

a woman frantically paddling a canoe, like she was fighting for her life . . . talking about how horrible the conditions were . . . after a few seconds of their mindless babble, a few national guardsmen WALKED BY the cameras, in front of the woman . . . the water wasn't even over their boots.

Haha, thats pretty funny. It makes me wonder what else they embellish to keep people tuned in.

[jackie]

Haha, thats pretty funny. It makes me wonder what else they embellish to keep people tuned in.

^ Just for the record, I was agreeing that the media loves disaster.

[Edwina's Secretary]

Is it the news media or are the media giving us what we want....

I agree that the media (especially tv) go for the extreme, the gruesome. But that is what sells. When there is an auto accident.....people gather round to gawk.

And it isn't anything new. When I was 10 my older sister was in a horrible auto accident. There was a photo in the newspaper the next day. There she is...15 years old....on a stretcher....covered in blood from a head injury and in terrible pain from a broken back and pelvis...and there is a woman standing over her looking at her. With her is a little girl with long blonde pig tails...also looking at her. Paramedics are there. There is no reason for that woman and child to be there -- except to "see".

And as there are more and more choices in televised news...they need to give the viewers whatever will keep them coming back to watch. So which is the horse and which is the cart?

[Kfamr]

I've been watching the "forecast" for Tropical Storm Wilma this morning.

I just wanna see . . . if it doesn't make landfall on the Gulf Coast as a Category 5 . . .

They'll all be so disappointed.

I surely won't! She's supposed to be heading my way.

[christa]

I surely won't! She's supposed to be heading my way.

Well, I hope & pray that for you & Florida, it won't be as bad as they're already making it out to be.

I want to make clear, I'm not trying to make light of the hurricanes or any disasters . . . it just kills me that these news networks thrive on this stuff.

[RICHARD]

Case in point?

The Holloway/Aruba Mystery.

Every night of the week it's Beth Holloway Twitty on the tube..
When the networks left Aruba for Hurricane Katrina, BHT broke her promise to
"Stay in Aruba until I find out what happened to Natalie..."

It's a small wonder that she got no cooperation from the Aruban authorities.

The media made a HUGE stink about this gal's disappearance...they followed the mom all over the island....that just bred the contempt the locals had for this woman and her daughter.

Hey, Natalie is missing, but chose to ignore the guy that got his arse tossed overboard on his honeymoon??

-----------------------------------------

The most troubling part about all the murders and disaster stories is that the media chooses the most photogenic, good looking people to profile and should you happen to be poor, ugly or ?????

FORGET IT!

[Edwina's Secretary]

So.....why do you watch these programs if they offend you? Why don't you turn off the tv?

[Pam]

So.....why do you watch these programs if they offend you? Why don't you turn off the tv?

You sort of don't have a choice if you watch the evening news. That is all that is covered really. Just the BAD news. Surely something good must be going on somewhere in the world. No wonder there are so many anti-depression, anti-anxiety drugs on the market. In fact, that is another whole subject. How in the world did we get to the point where a good third of the commercials are about drugs that we all supposedly need to take to cope with whatever ails us? Hubby often comments that some of the side effects of these drugs sound like they are worse than the disease they are trying to help. OK I'm done.

[RICHARD]

So.....why do you watch these programs if they offend you? Why don't you turn off the tv?

Because I get free cable, the West Wing sucks and "The Prez is a woman" is fiction.

Actually I love the History Channel, The Hysterical Channel (Comedy Central),
The Hysterics Channel (Lifetime) the Hysterectomy Channel (Discovery Channel) and the His and Hers Channel (Home and Garden TV)

[Edwina's Secretary]

All the reasons on this thread are why I rarely, rarely watch tv. I've never seen the woman you are talking about...and still I manage to keep fairly up-to-date on the news.

But Pam.... I am with you all the way on the drug commercials. And who is paying for those commercials? You and I every day in our rapidly increasing medical/drug insurance.

And I have never really understood why Dorothy Hamill was advertising Vioxx...if I took Vioxx would it make me skate like her??? SO..."ask your doctor if Vioxx is right for you!" "Hey doc...I want to skate like Dorothy Hamill. Give me Vioxx!"

I had someone in a class once who works for the company that makes a diabetes testing devise. When they began having a tv ad with a musician their sales went thorugh the roof. People went to the doctor and said..."Give me what he is using."

I believe the drug companies have their tenacles as deeply into our government as the oil companies.

That's why I get two newspapers and two news magazines. My little (very little) boycott. And I can read the news I want....and ignore the rest.